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First, the bad. The theme of a nerdy 6th-grade kid trying to pass as cool has been done. And the details of setting put this in a very narrow cultural era that readers will not remember - kids send emails to each other, but real newspapers are still delivered door-to-door to most addresses in a neighborhood.

But the good is that Gorman has a deft touch and adds interesting details; the story is free of most cliches. It's lively, plausible, and I liked it a lot. I think kids would, too. ( )

Cute middle school book about a boy who tries to reinvent his image into someone cool and struggles with how to keep up with his interests (science and other things he fears the cool kids will think are dorky) while still appearing cool to the girl whose looks he admires. In the end, he discovers he has more fun with the people who share his interests than he does with those he needs to pretend with.

I liked that the main character stood up for the girl who had first befriended him when the popular girl called her a nerd. I also like that the author shows that it's hard to keep track of the lies you have to tell when you try to be someone you're not, and that being true to yourself doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up alone.

I don't like that the main character told so many lies to appear cool. I don't like that the cool girl was using the main character to make another guy jealous--at the same time leading on the main character to think that they might have something together--though it could be that the main character was just too besotted or too naive to see the writing on the wall.

I like that in the end, the main character shocked the cool kids by choosing to hang out with the smart kids. ( )

I enjoyed reading this book because it made me think about when I was in school and how it felt to not feel 'cool'. As I read the book I thought about how things have changed. Wearing glasses you always felt like a geek and now glasses are more stylish.

Jerry wants to be cook and not a geek so he studies being a cool guy during the summer. He is in a new school and wants to be cool. ( )

Dork in Disguise by Carol Gorman- Jerry has always been a dork, so when he starts a new school he decides that he wants to be the cool kid. On the first day of school he meets a girl named Brenda who helps him with his “coolness”. He also meets a girl named Cinnamon who he develops a crush on. Jerry eventually realizes that he is much more comfortable just being himself.
I really liked the message about just being yourself. I think this is something students can relate to. We have probably all wished we were someone else at one time or another.
I got this idea from the book Speak. Before reading Dork in Disguise I would have the students decorate their own little paper sacks and I would hang them in my room. The sacks are for positive notes about classmates. I think that receiving anonymous positive notes from classmates would be a good boost. ( )